In the painting ‘The Lonely Horseman’ Zelimkhan Polonkoev depicted a highlander on a horse who stopped on a hill near old ancestral crypts.

The Ingush crypts are easily recognizable as their architecture is quite unique: they resemble small houses with pyramidal roofs. Ancient sanctuaries with a gable stepped roof have a similar structure. However, the sanctuaries, as a rule, have arched entrances, while one could enter the crypts through a special square hole. Small windows for ventilation were installed into the walls of the crypts, as dry mountain air at an altitude of over a thousand meters above sea level ensured natural mummification of the dead.

Fariza Karieva told about the reasons for the emergence of such above-ground burials to the newspaper ‘Ingushetia’:

The population density increased over time, and the shortage of land affected more and more people. This is where the tradition arose to build above-ground crypts in several tiers near the tower settlements. On an area of ​​9-10 square meters, several dozen graves could fit.

They served as a resting place for entire families of highlanders, so every local clan had its ancestral towers and ancestral cemetery. The tradition of burying the dead in the crypts was interrupted with the adoption of Islam: Muslims can only be buried in separate earthen graves.

Over time, the crypts, along with the tower complexes, have become special symbols for every inhabitant of Ingushetia; they serve as a reminder of the ancient history of the peoples, the continuity of clans and surnames, the importance of honoring the memory and traditions of their ancestors.

The horseman traveler in the painting created by Zelimkhan Polonkoev freezes before the ancestral crypts, looks at the ancient towers and the rocky mountains in the distance. The rider almost merges with the landscape — he is so organically integrated into this view as if these riders have been here for centuries and ridden here along the mountain paths.